Red Bull Racing appear to be at sixes and sevens over their driver lineup and having axed two drivers last year and this mid-season, the uncertainty over who should partner Max Verstappen appears confused.
Yuki Tsunoda had his best of his four years for the sister team in 2024 although he claimed the arrival of Daniel Ricciardo at the start of the campaign had an impact on how he went about racing. “It felt very important,” Tsunoda revealed. “Starting from last year, [in the] second half of the season, Red Bull – Helmut [Marko], Christian [Horner] – wanted me to calm myself down a little bit and focus on feedback, and to be a more complete driver.
“Daniel [Ricciardo] came into the team, and Daniel is very, very good at those things, especially the feedback and radio communications.”
Red Bull driver chaos
Ironically Ricciardo became a victim of his own success with the Japanese driver when Red Bull Racing decided to ditch him for Liam Lawson following the Singapore Grand Prix. Now with Sergio Perez admitting he’s talking ‘settlement’ with the team he has served over the past four years, the focus is on who will replace him and which driver will step up to join V-CARB in 2025.
Liam Lawson was given a private test following the British Grand Prix, but unlike the previous year which resulted in Daniel Ricciardo immediately being parachuted into a drive, the New Zealander was made to wait almost three months before being given his chance to partner Tsunoda for the last six Grand Prix of the year.
Isack Hadjar looked nailed on to win the F2 championship at one point, but a number of mistakes saw him fall at the final hurdle. Indeed it was McLaren academy driver Gabriel Bortoleto who won out in the season finale in Abu Dhabi, leaving Hadjar a distant second.
Hadjar is part of the discussions taking place at present to decide who drives where across the four seats owned by the Red Bull Organisation. Yet it has now come to light, the grandson of an F1 champion and legend of the sport had been given a test by the former world champions.
Why Ricciardo will be back in 2026
Enzo Fittipaldi promised AlphTauri/RB
Enzo Fittipaldi is the grandson of the racing legend Emerson, who won F1 titles with Lotus in 1972 and McLaren in 1974. Enzo joined the Ferrari academy back in 2016 and began his life in junior Formula Racing going on to win the Italian F4 title in 2018 before parting company with Ferrari in the winter of 2021.
Red Bull picked up the young Brazilian for the following year and his F2 campaign saw him eight at the end of the season. Into emerges the following year, Enzo was given a private test in a AlphaTauri car, something the squad from Milton Keynes does far less than other F1 competitors.
Enzo was knocking on the door of Formula One yet following the test he was to discover he would lose his place in the Red Bull young driver programme, something which still perplexes his advisor, Pedro Boesel.
“Last year,” Boesel tells motorsport.com “Enzo had a meeting with the top brass at Red Bull. He was called to this meeting and there they said that they had chosen him to drive for AlphaTauri this year, for RB. He tested the Formula 1 [car].
Hadjar underwhelmed
“It happened there after the Silverstone race [in July 2023], it was a private test, right there in Europe. From there, he won the race in Spa [in Belgium], he had a double podium: he won the race on Saturday, and was third on Sunday.”
Daniel Ricciardo at the time was testing the Red Bull which resulted in his immediate promotion alongside Yuki Tsunoda replacing the lack lustre Nyck de Vries who had been expected by Dr. Helmet Marko to “lead the team.”
Despite Enzo’s great run of form in F2 following the test, Red Bull severed their ties with the young Brazilian preferring to retain Ayumu Iwasa and Isack Hadjar.
Boesel continues: “And for some reason,” he continued, “Red Bull decided to send, of the six drivers in the program – Enzo, who was the second best in F2, Iwasa was the best – they sent the second, the third, the fourth and the fifth out of the academy and kept the last one, which is Hadjar.
“Nobody understands it, but it is what it is.”
What is behind Red Bull’s silence?
Isack Hadjar coded message
Now it is Isack Hadjar who is on the cusp of making his F1 debut when Red Bull finally conclude the contactual mess that surrounds Sergio Perez. Paddock chatter now believes with Franco Colapinto out of the running, either Liam Lawson or Yuki Tsunoda willl make the leap to the Big Bull F1 team with Hadjar filling in behind at V-CARB.
Hadjar made an FP1 appearance in Abu Dhabi tasked with the daunting prospect of driving Max Verstappen’s car. The team were running a number of aero tests and so the young French-Algerian driver had little opportunity to prove his worth.
Even so Hadjar was a respectable fifteenth at the end of the session and ahead of fellow rookie Jack Doohan in the Alpine who was over half a second slower. Hadjar blotted his copybook somewhat with an unforced error and a spin during the session and to top it all off he was then caught speeding in the pit lane.
When asked about his F1 future, Isack was coded in his response implying a decision had already been made. When asked in the media pen for his thoughts, Hadjar replied: “I mean, there’s obviously confirmed and yet to be confirmed, right?
“So, obviously, I literally can’t tell you what I’m doing next season, because it’s not been [made] official.”
“A truly horrible person” running the F1 team
Red Bull Racing are have entered their enclave with a lengthy debate on who their Formula One driver lineup will be for 2025. The white smoke was expected on Thursday after the Abu Dhabi finale but for some reason it never came.
The team once again changed its driver lineup mid-season this year as Daniel Ricciardo was finally put out to pasture and replaced by young gun Liam Lawson. The New Zealander was expected to step up and replace Sergio Perez for the next campaign, but his results when measured against team mate Yuki Tsunoda mean he’s out of contention.
The Japanese driver beat his kiwi team mate 6-0 in Grand Prix qualifying and scored double the points of Lawson in their six race weekends together. Yet such was the uncertainty within Red Bull that either Lawson or Tsunoda can do the job required against Max Verstappen, that Williams’ rising Argentinian star, Franco Colapinto was in the frame for a while…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
